Time to root for ECAC/IVY

marty · March 19, 2006, 06:15:16 PM

Don't forget their undefeated "cheating" team that skipped out on the NCAA tourney! Here are two appropriately colored smilies.

:-};-)

las224 · March 19, 2006, 06:30:29 PM

[quote nr53]

[/quote]

WHERE is that from? It's wonderful.

Drew · March 19, 2006, 06:31:18 PM

By putting cheating in quotes I see we are both on the same page. :-}:-)

nr53 · March 19, 2006, 06:37:53 PM

google image search for "harvard sucks". According to the blog i found it in, its a hack done by MIT. For having a good engineering school full of tons of crazy people, Cornell is pretty lame with its pranks. I wish we had done that instead of MIT:-P

dargason · March 19, 2006, 10:42:26 PM

[quote nr53]For having a good engineering school full of tons of crazy people, Cornell is pretty lame with its pranks. I wish we had done that instead of MIT:-P[/quote]

I dunno..."TC3 SUCKS" doesn't have quite the same ring :-P

Killer · March 20, 2006, 01:27:32 AM

Screw those bastards!!! I hope Maine kicks the snot out of them.

MattShaf · March 20, 2006, 08:58:23 AM

I have no interested in seeing Harvard even score another goal this season.
LGBB.
By the same analogy...if you were a Yankee fan would you root for the Red Sox to win the World Series. Or if you were a Giant fan...do you have interest in seeing the Eagles win the Super Bowl. NO Freakin way.
I still find it great when the Braves lose in the first round of the playoff.

jy3 · March 20, 2006, 09:04:49 AM

yeah, unfortunately I am going to hope that hahvahd wins a game in the tourney this year. In fact, I hope they do well, just no title.

cmoberg · March 20, 2006, 10:07:01 AM

Whats done is done. I hate Harvard with a passion and will never root for them against Cornell. But, looking at the bigger picture there is a reason to root for them against teams from other leagues. With only 2 ECAC teams in the NCAA tournament the league reputation is at stake. This has import to scheduling out of conference games and recruiting in the future.

Chris

Beeeej · March 20, 2006, 10:35:17 AM

I absolutely cannot bring myself to root for Sucks - especially when their inexplicable, cavalier attitude over on USCHO seems to be "If we can't win it all, we'd rather not win any games at all." If they happen to win two rounds, and so does Cornell, and we get to play them in the semifinal in Milwaukee, I will be absolutely ecstatic, especially as it will piss off all the western fans. But I wouldn't count on it and would rather see them go home after a brutal pasting by a suddenly hot Maine team.

Beeeej

billhoward · March 20, 2006, 11:37:32 AM

[quote MattShaf]I have no interested in seeing Harvard even score another goal this season.
LGBB.
By the same analogy...if you were a Yankee fan would you root for the Red Sox to win the World Series. Or if you were a Giant fan...do you have interest in seeing the Eagles win the Super Bowl. NO Freakin way.
I still find it great when the Braves lose in the first round of the playoff.[/quote]
I see myself as an American League guy rather than National League guy becasue I grew up in an AL-farm team city. But to me the analogy breaks down because it's play-for-pay in the pros and that makes it harder to transfer affections from Team A to Team B within the league.

I do feel some affinity for other Ivy schools because we have that same common, academically oriented, clenched-teeth, Mayflower-descendant, New Yorker-reading. Fortune 500-CEO heritage. (Heh!) I'd also rather see Stanford or Duke (um, maybe Duke) win an NCAA tournament than Albabama or Miami (scrapes with the law Miami, not Buckeye State Miami) because I think they share some academic values. Ditto Colgate, RPI, Clarkson.

As a practical matter, when Cornell and Harvard both make the Frozen Four this year, it enhances the league's reputation.

CUlater 89 · March 20, 2006, 12:17:24 PM

[quote Beeeej]I absolutely cannot bring myself to root for Sucks - especially when their inexplicable, cavalier attitude over on USCHO seems to be "If we can't win it all, we'd rather not win any games at all." If they happen to win two rounds, and so does Cornell, and we get to play them in the semifinal in Milwaukee, I will be absolutely ecstatic, especially as it will piss off all the western fans. But I wouldn't count on it and would rather see them go home after a brutal pasting by a suddenly hot Maine team.

Beeeej[/quote]

It's one thing to root against Harvard when the players act like jerks and make obnoxious comments about the Cornell team and fans, as many of them did in the late 80s and early 90s. From what I know, this team is not like that and Donato has always been respectful of Cornell, even in his playing days. So basically, you're rooting against Harvard because you don't want their fans to have the satisfaction; however, it seems to me that the ship has sailed on that one for this season. Unless we beat Harvard in a more meaningful game later this post-season, we've already lost the bragging rights for 2005-2006!

Particularly in light of the disrespect shown towards ECACHL teams by fans of other conferences, and by schools against whom ECACHL teams are trying to schedule games, I think it's in the league's interest (and therefore Cornell's interest in the long run) to see Harvard do well. Not to mention that if Harvard gets pasted by Maine, after the year the Black Bears have had, what does that say about Cornell?

That lack of respect for ECACHL teams is the distinguishing characteristic as to why a Cornell hockey fan can root for Harvard but a UNC hoops fan will not be rooting for Duke, despite the ACC connection.

las224 · March 20, 2006, 12:49:37 PM

[quote nr53]google image search for "harvard sucks". According to the blog i found it in, its a hack done by MIT. For having a good engineering school full of tons of crazy people, Cornell is pretty lame with its pranks. I wish we had done that instead of MIT:-P[/quote]

A hack as in someone photoshopped the image, or as in they hacked into the traffic thingy and made it actually say Harvard sucks? If it's the latter, we have a good engineering school that might be able to do likewise...

Trotsky · March 20, 2006, 12:55:15 PM

[quote cmoberg]Whats done is done. I hate Harvard with a passion and will never root for them against Cornell. But, looking at the bigger picture there is a reason to root for them against teams from other leagues. With only 2 ECAC teams in the NCAA tournament the league reputation is at stake. This has import to scheduling out of conference games and recruiting in the future.[/quote]

I agree with this. But then again, I didn't find myself hating Harvard after Saturday. They were the better team playing the better game. Cornell's had the best team in the conference from 2001-02 through 2004-05, a strong four-year run which netted 2 conference championships and a trip to the F4. They're now in the process of altering their game, and we'll see if that means reloading or rebuilding. But a team that comes and takes the crown is worthy of respect, just as BU was Back in the Day.

Now, when BU ascended above Cornell in 1974, the Big Red gradually slid towards the national oblivion that it took Schafer 25 years later to rescue them from. This time around, hopefully we're just looking at a speed bump.

Beeeej · March 20, 2006, 12:58:14 PM

[quote CUlater 89]So basically, you're rooting against Harvard because you don't want their fans to have the satisfaction[/quote]

That would be a bonus; it's not my sole or even primary reason, and if you thought it was, I didn't express myself well.

[quote CUlater 89]Not to mention that if Harvard gets pasted by Maine, after the year the Black Bears have had, what does that say about Cornell?[/quote]

As opposed to what it says about Cornell that Harvard lost to Quinnipiac and took one out of four points from Union? It says very little. There is no "Transitive Property of Hockey Victories," no matter how entertaining it is to follow the "championship belt."

Beeeej